Rock Band Unplugged is the best hand held music genre video game I have ever played. The game play is totally engaging and allows a single player to play a full band song seamlessly. The song list maybe a little familiar, but Rock Band Unplugged is the best portable music game available.
| The Good Parts | Rating  |
Rock Band Unplugged is a wonderfully designed one man band that lets you control all four instruments at the same time. Using the D-pad and face buttons to control the band is easy and fun and quickly flipping between four tracks on the go works beautifully to allow you to keep the music playing.
Rock Band Unplugged is a portable game, but it's just as much fun, and every bit as engaging, satisfying and challenging as the console music games that are currently available. Rapid-fire track switching adds a nice level of challenge that easily makes up for the lack of a dedicated guitar peripheral. The increased difficulty of this game adds an addictive element to the game play that had me coming back to see if I could improve.
| The Bad Parts | Rating  |
The list of tracks included with Rock Band Unplugged is a little disappointing when compared to recent music genre games that have been released. I had to play Boston's "More Than a Feeling" three times in the first three cities, which is really unnecessary, so they need to include a few new songs that are a little more current and popular.
The career mode included with Rock Band Unplugged is almost identical to the one I remember from Rock Band 2, which might sound like a positive thing to many, but this game only ships with half the songs of the console version. Rock Band 2 was guilty of repeating songs far too often already, imagine how many times you'll play the same song with only half as many songs available for play.
| The Game Graphics | Rating |
Rock Band Unplugged has an impressive visual presentation for a PSP title, the character models are detailed and visually crisp, and the colors are bright and clear. The screens include nice visual effects that keep your eyes busy while your fingers are hitting the right gems in time with the music. All the effects are bright and clear and sparkle in the eyes with bright colors and a neon look that is very visually engaging.
Screenshots
| Sounds in the Game | Rating  |
Rock Band Unplugged still uses the UMD format that has been in decline lately, but this format still produces clean, clear sounds of CD quality. The small sound selection of songs included are all popular and well known songs, but old war horses like the Foo Fighters' "Everlong" and Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" have already been included on Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero.
| Playability | Rating |
Rock Band Unplugged's brand of beat matching game play was addictive and definitely took me back to my days playing Frequency and Amplitude, Harmonix's Playstation 2 music games. By hitting every note in a phrase, you can keep a track autoplaying for a limited time while you tend to the other tracks. Just juggle all of them perfectly and you can play a full band song to perfection. The game play adds a nice level of depth that will entertain veteran virtual-musicians and keep them coming back to see if they can play a song a little bit better.
| The Last Word | Rating |
Rock Band Unplugged is the best portable music game you can buy for your money in my opinion and a sure winner with both veteran and casual gamers with its blend of simple, yet challenging game play. Once Harmonix gets the message and adds to the song list, either on line or off, Rock Band Unplugged will be even better.